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Monday, December 28, 2015

The UK describes the Muslim Brotherhood as "extremist" with "terror ties".A British Government report, ordered by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron found that the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide movement is "an extremist network responsible for indoctrination, radicalization" and described it as "with ties to Jihadists." This first comprehensive Government report on the Muslim Brotherhood took many months to be produced by many Government and private sector experts and analysts, with the assistance of inteligence and foreign policy offices. This would be the first NATO member and member of the UN Security Council to declare the Ikhwan as a Terror linked group, shortof designating it as terror entity. The Brotherhood have been designated as Terrorist organization by Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, and before them by Saudi Arabia. Jordan deals with them as with terror links. The British report could have an effect on the position of Russia and China as well as France, all three affected by Jihadi terrorism.Observers have already noted that the British position is diametrically opposed to the position of the Obama Administration, but in line with the majority in Congress position which is considering several bills to designate the Ikhwan as terror group. The consequences of a US designation, which is not expected to occur for the one year remaining under the present Administration, will affect the statuse of several Ikhwan fronts operating on US soil as lobbies or so-called "civil rights" groups.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Nexus between Terrorism and Organized Criminal groups from the Balkans as threat to EU SecurityBy Ioannis Michaletos & Darko Trifunovic

Preface

Nowadays in the South East Europe, the existence of
terrorist cells and safe havens is a real threat to the stability and coherence
of the region and for entire Europe indirectly. It is more than certain that
the local leaderships will soon have to cooperate in order to relieve the much
torn-apart South East Europe from this 21st menace.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Austria-Bosnia nexusVienna has long been the center of Wahhabism in the Balkans.Austria, after the terrorist attacks in Paris, got into the spotlight due to the activities of radical Islamists. Vienna has also long been the Wahhabi center in the former Yugoslavia, with an epicenter the mosque "Sahab" in the seventh district of the city.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) is “the fourth in the world” when it comes to the number of its residents who have joined Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL), Beta is quoting British media.According to this, this year 92 citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina joined the terrorist organization, B92 reports.“Kosovo is in fifth place with 83 fighters,” said the reports, adding that Jordan, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia were all “in front of Bosnia” on this list, while Belgium was ranked the highest among EU members.Bosnia-Herzegovina has been marked as a country through which weapons are smuggled, Security Minister Dragan Mektic has confirmed, saying he received this information come after the attacks in Paris. Bosnia is also mentioned as a place for money laundering, although it has a law in force to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.On the other hand, regional N1 broadcaster said it learned from the country’s law enforcement agency SIPA there was no information that any members of IS were located in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina.The money raised in mosques in Britain and used to finance IS is laundered trough accounts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to media reports.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

ISTANBUL – Since the emergence of the extremist Islamic State group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, thousands of westerners have joined its ranks. The Western governments expressed fear of the returnee jihadists, who could carry out attacks against European and American interests in their countries.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Balkans lose geopolitical importance for USA/Russia, albeit becoming a major security concern for the EUPolitics is the hand and economy is the sword, not vice versa(1)

The radical upturn in the international landscape due to the military involvement of Russia in the Middle East, has resulted in a subsequent rapid decrease of the importance of the Balkan region for Moscow, and for the US as well. At the sametime Balkans become a major source of concern for the EU.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The death
toll of the terror attack that took place at the street demonstration in Ankara
last Saturday raises to 128, while the wounded are 508, around 60 of them in
serious conditions; this according to local sources.

On Saturday
afternoon ten-thousand people took the streets of Istanbul yelling “assassin
State”, “we know the responsible”. Turks and Kurds, seculars and religious, all
together to call for the immediate resignation of Erdogan and his AKP
government.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Greek-Iranian Emerging Relations in the Post-Sanctions Era: an OverviewOriginally appeared in Balkanalysis, 12th September 2015

The Importance of Oil to the Bilateral RelationshipOil remains a key sector where the lifting of sanctions will benefit the Greek-Iranian commercial relationship. Until 2012 and the start of renewed international sanctions on Teheran by the international community, including a hydrocarbons embargo, Greece was importing around 200,000 barrels of oil per day from Iran, being one of Iran’s best customers on a worldwide level.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

A group led by Abdullah al Muhaysini, a popular al Qaeda-linked cleric in Syria, has released a video showing a training camp for children likely located in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. The video is for the “Cubs of al Aqsa [referring to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem] camp” and has been translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The video starts with a young boy decrying organizations for children in Syria. “O you who established organizations for protecting the rights of children!” The child goes on to say, “I am a child and my rights were violated, my school destroyed, and my dreams lost. I lost my mother and father under the rubble. You have heard my cries, you have heard my groans, you saw my tears and my blood and none of you did anything for me!”

A single photograph of a three-year old boy named Alan Kurdi, lying dead on a Turkish beach, has rocked the conscience of the world.
The picture will remain seared in our collective memory forever, just
as the image of a nine-year-old girl running naked on a road after
being severely burned on her back in a napalm bomb attack shook us up on
June 8, 1972. That was Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who later settled down in
Canada.

The jihad in Syria against the Alawites has been wholeheartedly funded by millionaires in Qatar. The Qatari ministry of culture oversees some of the volunteer operations to fund terrorism like this, and counter-terrorism expert Juan Zarate says the financial support for jihad comes “from the top.” This isn’t new information, but seeing video of the players involved may help some people to grow up and out of the old-fashioned 1990s view of Qatar as an ally in the Gulf.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Richard Dearlove, the former head of the British spy agency MI6, made these comments last month about support for the Islamic State of Iraq by Saudi and Qatari donors:"They [Sunnis in the Middle East] are deeply attracted towards any militancy that can effectively challenge Shia-dom. How much Saudi and Qatari money – now I’m not suggesting direct government funding, but I am suggesting maybe a blind eye being turned – is being channeled towards ISIS, and reaching it? For ISIS to be able to surge into the Sunni areas of Iraq in the way that it’s done recently has to be the consequence of substantial and sustained funding. Such things simply do not happen spontaneously".Source: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/former-british-intelligence-chief-speaks-substantial-and-sustained-saudi-funding-isis

In addition to institutional and charitable support by Qatar, Al Qaeda and its offshoots (including jihadists in Syria and Iraq) receive substantial financial support from private Qatari donors and bundlers. Here’s a quick who’s who:

Ankara (AFP) - Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal held closed-door talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara late on Wednesday, officials said.Meshaal, who often shows up at events hosted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.No statement was made to the press after the talks.

A senior employee of Amnesty International has undeclared private links to men alleged to be key players in a secretive network of global Islamists, The Times can reveal.The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

The traditional "role “of the Balkans as the soft underbelly of the Continental -and not only-, Europe , seems to be re-enforced judging by the recent culminations regarding the intention of the Islamic State (I.S.) and other Jihadist factions to subvert European security.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

A year ago, the IS declared its caliphate. Now the Islamist terrorists prepare for a new strategy. They systematically smuggle fighters over refugee routes into the EU.Original non-translated link to the article in full: http://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article143186475/Das-naechste-grosse-Schlachtfeld-ist-Europa.html

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

AFP (news.france@thelocal.com)Published: 29 Jun 2015France has deported 40 foreign imams for "preaching hatred" in the past three years, a quarter of them since the January terror attacks in Paris, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Monday.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

On
June 8, 2014, Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was sworn in as Egypt’s
seventh president. His triumph in the presidential elections held in May 2014
was not a surprise, given the public support he received for his role in the
removal of the Muslim Brotherhood regime on June 30, 2013, and the fact that
the Brotherhood was declared illegal and was banned from participating in the
electoral process.

Monday, June 8, 2015

"My commitment is... to
reject any oppression in the name of religion... a goal that we will
reach in a peaceful and law-abiding way." — Raif Badawi.

In another example of Saudi "justice," Badawi's lawyer, Walid
Abu'l-Khayr, was jailed. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, to be
followed by a 15-year travel ban.

What is happening to Badawi is a perfect reminder to anyone who
claims to be "offended" by "Islamophobia" why it might exist, who is to
blame for it, and that it is precisely behavior such as this that
justifies it.

Friday, June 5, 2015

The Maghreb’s
countries have started to capture attention since December 17, 2010 when
thousands of Tunisians protested against the former president Zine el-Abidine Ben
Ali. The "Jasmine Revolution", which took place in Tunisia after this tragic incident led both to the exile of the first Arab leader Ben Ali (Saudi Arabia) and, secondly, to the rapid spread of insurgency and other
desperate and angry Arab peoples of North Africa and the Middle
East where poverty, oppression and
corruption prevailed. Since December 2010 a lot has changed. Libya was split in two because of the civil war thatcaused
instability in the region, political Islamists won elections in Morocco, and in Tunisia there is a delicate
representative government after years of dictatorship.

In 2014, a group of marketing gurus produced impressive visual
material that became Turkey's public relations (PR) face across the
globe. The campaign, aiming to make Turkey one of the world's top five
tourist destinations by 2023, danced around the slogan "Home of..."
"Home of Coffee," one poster said. "Home of Trade," said another. The list
included "Home of Troy," "Home of Ancient Gods" and "Home of the
Iliad," too. But not just that. According to the PR campaign, Turkey was
also "Home of Virgin Mary" and "Home of Christianity." The latter two
sufficed to make Turkey "Home of Bad Jokes."

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The Kumanovo shooting perpetrated by an Albanian armed
group on May 9th and the recent FYROM political crisis have brought
to surface an extremely serious problem that could progressively deteriorate
the stability of the western Balkans and that is the infiltration of religious
and ethno-nationalist extremist groups for subversive purposes.

A mechanism that does not just rely on the
infiltration of violent armed groups through some of the porous borders of
Bosnia and Kosovo, but also on the presence of various NGO’s and charities with
activities that go far beyond the humanitarian objectives that they claim to
have.

A CIA report on charities from the late 90’s is clear
on the issue:

“Islamic activists dominate the leadership of the
largest charities, and prominent members of some smaller organizations have
been identified as extremists. The main objectives of these organizations
include proselytizing, helping the needy, and defending Muslim communities from
enemies. Where Muslims are engaged in armed conflict, some Islamic
organizations provide military aid as part of a "humanitarian"
package”.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Air Defense Systems Shipped To Syria From Benghazi, Obama Knew Attack Planned 10 Days In Advance

May 21, 2015

May 20, 2015 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – Along with the post 9/11/12 classified administration communication to which we referred yesterday [ BREAKING! Smoking Gun: Hillary and Stevens Running Weapons to Syrian Jihadists , PipeLineNews.org] confirming the transfer of weapons from Libya to Syria by Ambassador Chris Stevens under direction of his boss, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, there is much more.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

According to numerous Arab media sources, an internal US State Department report, details the names and professions of the major donors to τhe Islamic State and the Jihadist factions in Syria and Iraq.

A hundred years ago this week, as British and French troops were
bogged down facing Germany on the western front of World War I, the
Kaiser's ally in the east, the Turkish Ottoman Caliphate, was preparing
for a new kind of war.
A war of extermination.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Ethnic Albanian Kosovar Lavdrim Muhaxheri appears in an IS video calling on Albanian Muslims to join militants fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.At least 232 Kosovo citizens are fighting alongside militants in Syria and Iraq, making Kosovo rank eighth overall (and first per capita) among the 22 Western states with citizens fighting in Syria and Iraq, a new report has found.

Friday, April 17, 2015

I came across an interesting article on MEMO concerning Kosovo (Albanian) stance towards ISIS/IDIL, since ‘Kosovo’ is as local Albanians claim ‘the youngest republic in Europe’, which unilateraly proclaimed itself to be independent of Serbia in 2008.

Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) is the top source of fighters in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and other Islamic states with 125 fighters per million citizens, and it is followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina with 85 persons, shows a report by the Kosovo Center for Security Studies (KCSS).

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The data on foreign fighters from Italy recently released by the Italian institutions raised to 59 the number of individuals who left the country to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq: among them only 5 have Italian passports, while 2 have dual citizenship.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The much-discussed illegal immigration phenomenon in Greece presents a security challenge to the country and to Europe in general, and this is the aspect of the issue most discussed in the national and global media.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

By Chris Deliso, Ioannis Michaletos and Matteo AlbertiniSummaryISIS-affiliated militants’ recent attacks on oil fields in Libya, coupled with the gruesome murders of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by terrorists there earlier, confirms that the terror group is expanding operations in a new theater, far from its home turf of Iraq and Syria; there it is under more concentrated attack from the Iraqi army, backed by Iran’s military and Shiite militias. After its rapid gains last summer, ISIS has been on the defensive following months of allied bombardment, and needs to expand to new theaters to sustain its momentum and perpetuate the apocalyptic theology that, as a recent study by Graeme Wood in The Atlantic revealed, comprises the ideological core of the whole ‘Islamic State’ project.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

France is considering a prohibition against foreign funding of domestic mosques. This is a sensible proposal given that Saudi funds have been coming with Wahhabi or Salafi strings attached for decades, and Qatar has joined the fray.

BIRN,TiranaAldo Kobuzi was an average teenager in a forgotten village of central Albania before he took the fateful path towards Islamic radicalization and joined Islamic State, or ISIS.Before then, his main passions were motorbikes and Tony Montana, the lead character of the 1983 crime flick Scarface.On the other side of the Adriatic, in Italy, Maria Giulia Sergio, was a Neapolitan Catholic who, after converting to Islam in 2007, appeared in TV shows under the name of Fatima az Zahra, defending the wearing of the veil.In the summer of 2013, Kobuzi, 23, and Sergio, 25, met in Milan through common contacts and married. The wedding photos, which made the rounds of Italian magazines, show the bride covered from head to toe from a white satin hijab.

For several months, Barack
Obama has been trying to change US
policy in the Middle East in order to eliminate the Islamic Emirate with the
help of Syria.
But he cannot do this, partly because he has been saying for years that
President Assad must go, and secondly because his regional allies support the
Islamic Emirate against Syria.
However, things are slowly evolving so he should be able to do so soon. Thus,
it appears that all States that supported the Islamic Emirate have ceased to do
so, opening the way for a redistribution of the cards.

The world
awaits the conclusion of a comprehensive agreement between Washington
and Tehran -under the ridiculous pretext of
ending a military nuclear program that has not existed since the end of the war
waged by Iraq
(1980-1988) -. It would focus on the protection of Israel
in exchange for recognition of Iranian influence in the Middle East and Africa.

However, this should only
take effect after the Israeli elections of March 17, 2015. The supposed defeat
of Netanyahu would renew ties between Washington and Tel Aviv and facilitate
agreement with Tehran.In this context, the US elite are trying to agree on future policy,
while the European allies of the United States
are preparing to align with what will be the new US policy.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

In the summer of 2014 ISIS released a video containing
a threat to start a war in Russia’s Chechen Republic and the whole Caucasus
region. The footage showed an insurgent speaking from a fighter’s cockpit at
the al-Tabaka Airbase near the city of Raqqa, Syria, claiming that the
extremist group was going to “liberate” Chechnya and the Caucasus.[1]

In October 2014 Omar al-Shishani, one of ISIS’ military commanders, threatened that Russia would become one of
the group’s next targets. On the phone with his father in Georgia, al-Shishani
said that he would have revenge on Vladimir Putin and that he would infiltrate
Russia with thousands of followers. [2]

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The following list is a 2011 one, compilled by Russian MFA and provides a good mapping of mostly Caucasus based terrorist networks.From the 1510 individuals:-117 from Grozny-795 from areas of the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous SSRThe post Arab Spring period, should have changed/altered the records.Originally the list was presented as "[Organizations and individuals included in the list by virtue of subsections 6 and 7 of paragraph 2.1 of Article 6 of the Federal Law of 7 August 2001 N 115-FZ “On Combating Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and Terrorist Financing”] "P.S. Complete database with all names and organizations in: http://rg.ru/2011/07/06/extremism-dok.html

Monday, February 23, 2015

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on terrorism in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, and Russia as well as terrorist activity originating from these regions abroad.

Though focusing on recent (non-Russian language) literature, the bibliography is not restricted to a particular time period and covers publications up to December 2014. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to expand the search.

Friday, February 20, 2015

The formidable expansion and mutation of the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) deriving from the "ISIS" group, also known simply as "Daesh", is heading into a point where important and decisive measures by the international community must be taken.

The ISIS
beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts on a beach in Libya has generated rage
and disdain among the international community, as well as in the Arab
world and a strong reaction from Cairo. The Egyptian and Emirates Air
Force attacks on several sites of the group's stronghold in Derna,
killed over 50 jihadists and destroyed a good part of their
infrastructure. In addition, on Wednsday, Egyptian special forces raided
Derna and captured a vast number of ISIS members.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the offices of French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo and
the subsequent attack by Islamist extremists on a kosher market,
President Barack Obama invited political and religious leaders to a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.
The whole summit is a bit amorphous and unfortunately seems to be the
latest example of foreign policy by photo-op rather than substance.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Fetullah Gulen's international Islamic movement is for the past few years in the spotlight in Turkey due to his para-state mechanism he was able to orchestrate, with multiple layers of influence within the Police and state security forces and the education apparatus of the country.

The Turkish government, ostensibly a NATO 'ally,' has been forced to
admit that its intelligence service funneled arms to Al-Qaeda’s
affiliate in Syria.

The Turkish government, ostensibly a
NATO “ally,” has been forced to admit that its intelligence service
funneled arms to Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. The so-called “moderate”
Islamist government has been caught in a long cover-up and is threatening to shut down social media outlets that don’t block the reporting of the scandal.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

The turmoil in the European states due to the return of Jihadists of ISIS from the Middle Eastern battlefields has resulted in a wide range of security measures aimed to curb the operational capabilities of those.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Manuel Valls argues that the charge of 'Islamophobia' is often used to silence critics of Islamism.

The prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, has emerged over the past tumultuous week as one of the West’s most vocal foes of Islamism, though he’s actually been talking about the threat it poses for a long while.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

An Egyptian government website features a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood has a lobby in the U.S. disguised as civil society organizations. The United Arab Emirates has made similar statements and the U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the existence of a Muslim Brotherhood branch in America.

While many French react to the attack against Charlie Hebdo denouncing
Islam and demonstrating in the streets, Thierry Meyssan points out that
the jihadist interpretation is impossible. While it would be tempting
for him to see it as an Al Qaeda or Daesh operation, he envisages
another, much more dangerous hypothesis.

On January 7, 2015, commandos erupted in Paris, in the premises of
Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people. 4 more victims are still in
serious condition.
On the videos, the attackers are heard shouting "Allah Akbar! and
"avenge Muhammad”. One witness, a Coco designer, said they proclaimed
affiliation with al-Qaeda. That’s all it took for many French to
denounce it as an Islamist attack.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Last week, Israel’s Foreign Ministry praised Qatar for purportedly expelling Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal from Doha.
The announcement came shortly after CNN cited reports from a Hamas news agency indicating that Meshaal was to
be expelled and was probably headed to Turkey. Within hours,
however, CNN changed its story, issuing a correction on Twitter that read “sources close to
Hamas—not news agency—say Qatar
expelled Khaled Meshaal; Hamas official denies it.”

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Pegida's worries about the
Islamization of Germany concern the seeming intolerance and religious
fanaticism that have grown hand-in-hand with the arrival of the Muslim
populations unwilling to adapt to Western values.
The terror attacks in France Had "nothing to do with Islam." — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.
By decrying Pegida's views as "xenophobic," narrow minded" and even
"inhuman," Germany's ruling establishment shows how deeply out of touch
it is with the worries of a large segment of the population.
Perhaps the people in the East just want to avoid the situation that
the Western part of the country is in. Having gone through decades of
Communist dictatorship, perhaps they are less inclined to trust that
their political leaders have the people's best interests in mind with
their policies.